Mr. McGregor's Spring Farm Days

One of the best things about having a kid is that we get out of our comfort zone and try activities that we had never considered before.

This morning we got up and drove to Huntsville for Mr. McGregor's Spring Farm Days at Burritt on the Mountain in Huntsville. 

This was our first visit to this historic park, complete with restored historic 19th century houses, barnyard animals, numerous playgrounds for little people and an excellent view of the city of Huntsville and the mountains of North Alabama.

The park is set up so that you can walk through historic homes but also offers a twist of fun for children by incorporating games from favorite nursery rhymes in the form of the Whimsical Woods. 

Jack really enjoyed seeing all of the animals. I'm pretty sure his favorite thing was visiting the sheep. He has now added the sound "baa" to his repertoire of words/sounds. It is so sweet to hear him say this because he would whisper it to the sheep!

We saw ponies, a cow, pigs, goats, sheep and chickens.

We also watched a farmer shear a rather large sheep. It had quite a coat of wool to keep it warm this past winter!

Jack had fun playing on at least three different playgrounds throughout the park. 

I think his favorite playground activity was when Daniel helped him climb up a climbing wall.

And the slide is always a big hit!

Jack also seemed to enjoy the more educational parts. He was mesmerized by the fire in the blacksmith shop and appeared interested in the demonstration of how they cooked in the 19th century.

We all enjoyed our visit to Burritt on the Mountain – though we skipped out the touring the eclectic mansion. Perhaps we will see it on our next visit.

I don't know that our family would benefit from a yearly pass to the park, but we had a great time (and wore ourselves out) visiting on one of the special Mr. McGregor's Farm Days today!

See Jack {late February 2013}

This is an ongoing series of videos that I am sharing so that our extended family can keep up with how Jack is growing and changing in these early years.

See Jack open and shut the TV armoire door. 

This is currently a favorite pastime of our toddlers. 

{late February}

See Jack shred a paper towel.

It doesn't take much to entertain this guy.

{late February}

See Jack play with his tunnel. 

He loves to play with his Daddy in the evenings.

{late February}

See Jack test out a new pair of tennis shoes.
He is uncertain at first, but now he is an old pro 
and the rubber soles keep his feet protected on the playground. 

{late February}

See Jack test out the slide at the park.
He still hasn't quite mastered going down by himself but he loves to slide.

{late February}

Easter

Easter has come and gone. Over 2000 years ago, Friday was an excruciatingly sad day for believers but every day we can have hope because Sunday came.

This is my favorite depiction of what Easter is about. This video was played during an Easter service at our church in Charlotte several years ago and it really spoke to me. It still gives me tingles today.

Daniel and I have been having a lot of discussions lately about what holidays should look like for our family. What traditions do we want to start or continue? What commercial aspects do we buy into? What things do we let go? 

This Easter it was just Daniel, Jack and I. We didn't do anything special besides go out to eat. We were about the only people eating at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants (not typical fare for Easter!).

I did have a moment when I felt a small twinge of guilt yesterday. It was during the "meet and greet" part of our church service. A woman (someone's grandma) was sitting next to me asked Jack (really me) if the Easter bunny had come that morning? I told her no and felt a bit awkward.

...Crickets...

Daniel and I struggle with telling Jack about the Easter Bunny (or Santa Claus) because they aren't real. They are fictional characters. 

On the one hand, we don't want Jack to grow up feeling gypped about his childhood. On the other hand, we want to emphasize what these holidays are really about. Easter Sunday is about hope and triumph over evil in our risen Savior.

I have read about how some parents choose to tell their children that Santa and the Easter Bunny are pretend, and a part of the game is to not tell other kids that these characters are make believe. I think that in the future, this is an idea that Daniel and I can work with. We can share in the fun of fictional characters without having to go against our consciousness by pretending that these characters are real.

If you are a parent that loves the Easter Bunny (or Santa), I don't want you to feel like I think any differently of you. I think we all parent differently and I respect how you choose to do things. Really, I do. I will do my best to encourage my child not to accidently break the news to your child :)

We will probably never do gifts from Santa or the Easter Bunny, but we will participate in other fun parts of these holidays like Easter Egg hunts. We may even go visit these characters at the mall. I don't see how that is any different from going to see at Disney character at WDW.

Most importantly I hope that we are doing our best to share with Jack that Easter is about the power of the resurrection of Christ. I hope you had a happy Easter – however you chose to celebrate it with your kids!

Books I Read in March (#6-8)

Here are the books I read in March. It appears that my book choices have been predominantly religious this year.

Warrior Prayers by Brooke McGlothlin was an excellent read. As a new parent (of a boy) there are so many things to worry about. As a Christian (who would like to impart my faith on my son) there are ever more things that make me worry. 

I found this book to be an great source of comfort and direction on how I can pray for my son. The biggest thing I took away from this book is that I am not in control. There is nothing I can do to force my son (or anyone) to be who I want them to be, except pray. This is something I already believe, but it was a good reminder nonetheless. 

The book provides many prayers that are based on scripture to pray over your boys. I think the prayers are applicable to anyone and I have found peace in these prayers. Brooke also writes the blog, the MOB Society (mother of boys). She uses her site to encourage mothers of boys in their path to raising their children. I gave this book 5/5 stars on Goodreads.

You Lost Me is the follow up to the book, unChristian. Both are by David Kinnaman. While unChristian took a look at how nonChristians, or the unchurched view the church (based on surveys conducted by the Barna Group), You Lost Me takes a look at why so many young people who were raised in the church are leaving the church and/or walking away from religion completely. 

I am slightly outside of the age group that this book is talking about, but I have certainly had similar feelings or experiences about the church. I also identified with a lot of the concerns in the book unChristian as well. I thought both books were fascinating and I think it is important for believers to take a hard look at why young people don't want to be connected with the church. 

I recently read a blog post (And Then the Conference Uninvited Me to Speak by Jen Hatmaker) that I think sums up how young Christians are feeling about religion today. I gave this book 5/5 stars on Goodreads.

Yellow Star is the account of Syvia Perlmutter's experience as a child growing up in the Lodz ghetto during the Holocaust. It is written by Syvia's niece Jennifer Roy. 

Since middle school I have had a fascination with stories of Holocaust survivors. When I was young I would read these books and weep. While I did not cry during this book, I am glad that I took the time to read about this family's survival as told from the perspective of a young girl. 

230,000 Jews were sent to live in the ghetto in Lodz, Poland. Of that original number, only 800 survived. Twelve were children. Syvia and her sister, mother and father were four of the survivors.

I read a few reviews complaining about the style of writing this book uses. I enjoyed the style and appreciated the perspective of the story from Syvia as a child. Stories from the Holocaust always amaze me and this one was no different. It is hard to believe that such atrocities happened then and sadder still to know that genocide continues to happen around the world today. I gave this book 5/5 stars on Goodreads.

I am continuing to read The Story and have enjoyed reading the Bible in this format. If you are expecting an exact replication of the Bible, you won't like this book, but if you are interested in reading the Bible as a collective story, then this is an excellent read. 

I have heard people say that the movie, The Bible, on the History Channel has been pretty violent and moves quickly (perhaps too quickly). My take is that if you actually read the Old Testament, it is pretty violent stuff. As for the pace of the tv series or this particular book, there are certainly some things that get left out – probably due to the restraints of the format. At any rate, I have read up through the story of Ruth and have appreciated rereading these stories.

Play Date: The Matrix

Play dates are still relatively new experiences for me and Jack. Until now we have only really done things with my sister and her kids. Which has been great, but has it's limitations since we live about 2 hours apart. 

As Jack continues to grow, I have felt more of a need to get him out playing with other kids and I need some mom friends in my life too. Thankfully there are a few other moms in our church life group and I have enjoyed getting to know them a bit better over the past year.

This morning Jack and I headed over to Huntsville to meet up one of our church friends and her twin girls at The Matrix in Huntsville. 

This was a first for me. I took gymnastics for a brief time in middle school, but I hurt myself doing a flip on a trampoline and kind of lost the taste for it. The Matrix is a huge gymnastics/tumbling/cheerleading and 24-hour fitness gym that offers a variety of classes for different ages. Lucky for us, it also has open gym time on Friday mornings for little kids.

Unfortunately we didn't get to go in the big gym with all of the trampolines. Since it was spring break, there were a lot of clinics going on for older children. We did get some time in a smaller gym and Jack had a blast.

It was $5 for an hour of play. There was an air track to run and bounce on. 

A foam pit to swing into (Jack is too small for the swinging part but he still jumping in the pit).

Uneven bars and low balance beams to try. Jack was really interested in the bars and he wanted to step over the beams. 

There were also two trampolines to play on as well as obstacles like a tunnel and wedged shaped mats to climb over or practice rolling on.

I didn't get much time to visit with my friend – all of the activities required a lot of supervision of Jack, but it was still a lot of fun and I am so thankful that we were invited to meet them.

Since our small town has very few offerings for kids (besides park playgrounds – which we love), I think we will start making a weekly drive over to Huntsville. Right now I am considering The Matrix every other week and Barnes and Noble for a free story hour on the off weeks. 

I'm still getting the hang of this mom thing and the whole idea of getting Jack out to do things that are fun for him. Plus it was nice to be able to run into Target and do a little shopping before heading home... it's the little things in life, right?

Feeding Ducks with Grandpa

See Jack feed ducks with his Grandpa Moore

Yesterday afternoon Jack and I spent some time with Jack's Grandpa Moore. Grandpa M. is getting ready to buy a new house in Chattanooga, so we tagged along for moral support.

We were in town a little early for a house viewing, so we made a pit stop at a park in College Dale to feed ducks.

This was a big hit with Jack. His Grandpa did the feeding and Jack got a big kick out of the experience. I'm pretty sure that Jack just wanted to touch the ducks.

We saw quite the variety of ducks... Young ones and old ones. White ones and brown ones. Some had green heads and some had red heads.

The red headed ducks looked like a cross between a duck and a turkey – I have never seen a duck like this before. There were even a few Canadian Geese in the mix.

The sun was shining and it wasn't too cold. Really a perfect afternoon to feed ducks.

I am sure that we will be feeding more ducks in the near future!

See Jack {and his cousins – March 2013}

This is an ongoing series of videos that I am sharing so that our extended family can keep up with how Jack is growing and changing in these early years.

I'm pretty sure that Jack had a blast spending toddler spring break with his cousins. Here are a few videos that capture some of the fun. 
 

See Jack and Levi pretend to cook in the play kitchen. 

These boys love this kitchen.

See Jack and Levi play in the (real) kitchen.

Levi had a blast running in circles and showing Jack how to sweep.


See Jack and Izzy ride horses together.
Also Angela teaches Izzy a new phrase, "Mark, shut the front door!"
You have to watch what you say around these kids :)

 
See Jack ride the big horse with help from his Grandpa Voyles.
 Jack is lucky that Grandpa brought him his own horsey to take home to Alabama...
now if only his daddy would put it together for him!  


See Jack and Levi jump on the trampoline.
It was a little cold, but the boys had a great time. 
They will be wrestling in there in no time. 


See Jack and Levi and Grandpa Voyles.
Grandpa sure makes a lot of crazy sounds! 


See Jack play with his cousins. 
This is just a little bit of our crazy!